Floor or like sweeping means



R. D. LE COUNTE ETAL 3,106,733 FLOOR OR LIKE SWEEPING MEANS Oct. 15,1963 5 SheetsSheet 1 Filed Jan. 6, 1961 INVENTORS .POV D. ZfC'OU/VTEFOBEPT 4. (Odd? r- #uwarxDM 23% 19/74 595 lam/m 6. 76910515 Oct. 15,1963 R. D. LE COUNTE ET AL FLOOR 0R LIKE SWEEPING MEANS 3 Sheets-Sheet 2Filed Jan. 6, 1961 fi ii iji II /771662525 190M 6. TWV/J Och 1963 R. D.LE COUNTE ET AL 3,106,733

- FLOOR OR LIKE SWEEPING MEANS Filed Jan. 6, 1961 3 Sheets-Sheet 3INVENTORS POV 0. 5600)? 205597- 4. 042? WIT/V6325 my law/W 6 7671 4515#rr OBI 7 6 United States Patent 3,106,733 FLOGR 0R LlKE SWEEPING MEANSRoy D. Le Counts, 394 St. Charles, Caldwell, Kans, and lioahert L. Cole,RR. 1, Renfrow, Okla. Filed Jan. 6, 1961, Ser. No. 81,078 2 Claims. (Cl.-49) This invention relates to powered floor or like sweepers and, moreparticularly, to a sweeper that will successfully clean floors havingliquid and/ or viscous foreign matter upon them. 1

Powered floor sweepers are old. They often consist of a motorizedrotating brush and are used for picking up dry materials such as dust,hair, lint and like from the floors of homes and office buildings. They,however, are not satisfactory in the removal of oil, grease, mud, cakedearth, water, liquids and such foreign matter found on the floors ofsuch establishments as factories, garages, service stations, and like.

Therefore, one of the principal objects of this invention is to providea floor cleaning device that will successfully remove both caked drymatter and wet matter from surfaces.

More specifically, the object of our invention is to pro vide a floorsurface cleaning means that has a powered metallic rotating brush andmeans for depositing (when needed) a relatively dry material onto thesurface to be cleaned and in advance of the rotating brush.

A further object of this invention is to provide a surface sweepingdevice that is continuously under the complete control of the operator.

Still further object of our invention is to provide a heavy duty surfacesweeper that is economical in manufacture, durable in use and refined inappearance.

These and other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art.

Our invention consists in the construction, arrangements, andcombination, of the various parts of the device, whereby the objectscontemplated are attained as hereinafter more fully set forth,specifically pointed out in our claims and illustrated in theaccompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a side View of our sweeper ready for use,

FIG. 2 is an enlarged prospective view of the handle portion of thedevice,

FIG. 3 is an enlarged bottom plan View of the material depositing meansin the lower rear end of the sweeper,

FIG. 4 is an enlarged longitudinal sectional view of the device and morefully illustrates its construction, and

FIG. 5 is an enlarged bottom view of our surface sweeper.

Referring to the drawings, we have used the numeral it) to generallydesignate the housing of the sweeper and which is in the form of a hoodas shown in FIG. 4. Supporting the rear end of this hood above thesurface 11 to be cleaned, are two spaced apart wheels 12 and 13. Theforward end of the sweeper is supported by a caster wheel 15. bar havingits two ends hingedly secured to the two sides, respectively, of thehousing It The handle may be moved forwardly for storage purposes asshown in FIG. 4. When the device is in use, the handle 16 will extendupwardly and rearwardly, engaging the stop means 19 as shown in FIG. 1.The top center of the hood housing 1% is depressed to provide acompartment 20 for holding the electric motor 21. This motor has a driveshaft 22 with a belt pulley wheel 23 thereon. The numeral 25 designatesan electric cable having one end connected to the motor and its otherend adapted to be in communication with a source of electric energy.Imposed in this cable 25 is a switch 26 which is secured The numeral 16designates a U-shaped handle.

'lar to that of a mechanical floor sweeper.

3,106,733 Patented cf. 15, 1963 to a base plate 27 on the upper endportion of the handle 16 as shown in FIG. 2. Secured to each side of thehousing 1% is an arm 29. Each arm 29 has a longitudinally adjustableslidable arm 36, as shown in FIG. 5. The numeral 31 designates acylindrical bristled brush having its shaft 32 rotatably mounted to thelower free ends of the two arms 30, respectively, by self-centeringfloating bearings. The bristles of this cylindrical brush are preferablymetallic, and the brush has a plurality of longitudinal slots 33 in itsperiphery as shown in FIG. 4. The shaft 22 of the motor and the hingedpoints of the arms 2% are in line with each other as shown in FIG. 1.The numeral 35' designates a pulley Wheel on the shaft 32 of the brush.The numeral 36 designates an endless belt embracing the pulley wheel 23and the pulley wheel 35. By this arrangement of parts, when the motor isrunning, the cylindrical brush will be rotated, but because of it beingflexibly supported, the brush will float and properly yieldingly engagethe surface to be cleaned. Because the brush floats on the surfacerelative to the housing lil, it will conform to variations, depressions,elevations and like that may exist in the top surface of the area beingcleaned. :The spaced apart slots 33 of the brush render it moreeflicient and also provide selfcleaning characteristics. The numeral 37designates a horizontal shaft spaced apart from and to the rear of thebrush 31 and which is rotatably mounted through the housing ll). Thenumeral 39 designates a baflle plate rotatably mounted on the shaft 37and which extends downwardly and forwardly relative to the brush 31 asshown in FIG. 4. The numeral 40 generally designates a drawer detachablyextending into the lower forward end of the housing 10. The top andforward end of this drawer is open for receiving sweepings 41 from thebrush 31. The forward end of the drawer 40 is supported by a V-shapedbracket 42 detachably embracing the shaft 37 as shown in FIG. 4. Thenumeral 43 designates a plurality of holes in the bottom of thedetachable drawer tray 40. :The numeral 45 designates a valve platelongitudinally slidably mounted on the bottom of the drawer 4i) andhaving a plurality of holes 46 capable of registering with the holes 43of the drawer when the plate 45 is slid to a rearward position. Thenumeral 47 designates the spring means connected to the drawer 4t} andto the plate 4.5 as shown in FIG. 3 to yieldingly. hold the plate 4 5 ina rear position. The numeral 4-9 desig. nates a bar lever having one endrigidly secured to the shaft 37. The numeral 5% designates a control rodhaving one end secured to the free end of the bar 49 and its other endsecured to the central portion of the lever 51. This lever 51 has oneend pivoted to the plate 27 as shown in FIG. 2. The numeral 52designates a lug on the shaft 37 capable of engaging the forward end ofthe plate 45 and moving the plate 45 rearwardly and against the yieldingaction of the spring 47. The numeral 53 designates a handle on thedrawer 40 for facilitating its raising and outward sliding from thehousing 10.

The practical operation of the device is as follows: With the brushbeing rotated by the prime mover, the device is moved over the surfaceto be cleaned simi- Both the rush and bafile plate 39 will conform tovariations in the surface to be cleaned. Dust, dirt, and like foreignmatter from the rotating brush will be guided by the plate 39 up to andinto the drawer 4i). downwardly extending baflle 55 on the underside ofthe housing iii may be used for further guiding material from the brushinto the receiving drawer. Usually the material from the brush will bedry material, such as dust. Obviously, if there is a liquid spotting thesurface to be cleaned, the rotating brush would not be entirelysuccessful in If desired, a

in removing it. Such liquid spots are often encountered in the form ofoil drippings on the floors of garages and ervice stations. Therefore,when such liquid spots are encountered, the liquid should be absorbedfirst by some dry material, such as the previously deposited dust in thedrawer 40. This is accomplished by pulling rearwardly on the handle 51which will rotate the shaft 37, which in turn will move the plate 45rearwardly so that its holes 46 register with the holes 43 and permit aquantity of such dust or like to pass through the drawer and onto thewet spot to be cleaned. Upon release of the lever 51, the springs 47move the holes 46 from register ing with the holes 43. With the wet spotor Spots now saturating the deposited dry material, the brush 31 willeasily pick up such absorbed material and cast it into the drawer 40. Ifit would so happen that no dry material is present within the drawer 40for placement on such wet spots, the drawer 40 may be partially filledwith a suitable dry material, such as sawdust or like.

Although we have been designating the drawer end of the machine as beingto the rear end or" the housing 10, if desired, the arrangement of thevarious parts may be reversed so that the material receiving drawer 40is located in the forward end of the housing 10 rather than its rearend. This reversal of parts is merely accomplished by swinging theU-shaped handle 16 to a position as shown in FIG. 4. By the use of thehandle in this position, there is the advantage that the dry materialmay be deposited on the wet spot prior to the following sweeper brush31. Some operators of the machine will use the machine as shown in FIG.4 in order that the brush contacted material will be cast forwardly andupwardly into the container 40 similar to that of large brushed streetcleaners. Other users of the device will prefer to use the machine asshown in FIG. 1 and wherein the material engaged by the rotated brushwill be cast upwardly and rearwardly into the container 49. One chiefadvantage in using the machine as shown in FIG. 1 is that the downwardswinging movement of the handle 16 is limited by the stops 19. By thisconstruction a further downward pressure on the handle 16 will raise thefront end of the machine thus lifting the brush out of contact with thesurface 11. This elevating of the machine is sometimes necessary when itis desired to pass the machine over loose gravel, a carpet or likewherein it would be highly objectionable for such surface to be engagedby the brush. By mounting the motor within the depression 20 it will notbe subjected to dust and dirt and also will be protected from engagementwith rigid objects. If desired, shields may be placed at each side ofthe brush as shown in FIG. 5 and when this is done the belt 36 and itspulley wheels will be shielded from dirt or like being engaged and castby the rotating brush.

Some changes may be made in the construction and arrangement of ourfloor or like sweeping means without departing from the real spirit andpurpose of our invention, and it is our intention to cover by our claimsany modified forms of structure or use of mechanical equivalents whichmay be reasonably included within their scope.

We claim:

1. In a surface cleaning device, a housing having an open space, wheelssupporting said housing, a single cylindrical brush operativelyrotatably mounted to said housing, a prime mover operatively connectedto said brush, a compartment in said housing having a plurality ofopenings formed in its bottom wall and having a top opening forreceiving all matter from said brush, said brush rotatable to throwsweepings through said open space and directly through said top opening,a plate slidably mounted on the bottom of said compartment and having aplurality of holes each capable of registering with one of said bottomopenings when in one position of its sliding movement for depositingmatter from the compartment onto the surface to be cleaned, and meansconnected between said housing and said plate normally biasing saidplate out of said one position wherein said bottom openings are closed.

2. In a surface cleaning device, a housing having an open space, wheelssupporting said housing, a single cylindrical brush operativelyrotatably mounted to said housing, a prime mover operatively connectedto said brush, a compartment in said housing having at least one openingin its bottom, said compartment open at the top thereof for receivingall matter from said brush, said brush rotatable to throw sweepingsthrough said open space and directly into said compartment through saidopen top, a plate slidably mounted on the bottom of said compartmenthaving at least one hole capable of registering with the bottom openingwhen in one position of its sliding movement for depositing matter fromthe compartment onto the surface to be cleaned, a spring means foryieldingly holding said plate in a position whereby its hole does notregister with the bottom opening and the bottom opening is therebyclosed, and a manual means for moving said plate against the action ofsaid spring means.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS447,381 Thompson et a1 Mar. 3, 1891 518,716 Downs Apr. 24, 1894 679,286Allen July 30, 1901 913,460 Bishop Feb. 23, 1909 936,842 Wilson Oct. 12,1909 1,057,949 Ekre Apr. 1, 1913 1,097,911 Brugger May 26, 19141,694,937 Floeter Dec. 11, 1928 1,987,371 Rudd Jan. 8, 1935 2,205,249Fitzgerald et a1 June 18, 1940 2,236,813 Evans Apr. 1, 1941 2,817,460Bond Dec. 24, 1957 2,972,159 Swanson Feb. 21, 1961 FOREIGN PATENTS765,671 Great Britain Jan. 9, 1957

1. IN A SURFACE CLEANING DEVICE, A HOUSING HAVING AN OPEN SPACE, WHEELSSUPPORTING SAID HOUSING, A SINGLE CYLINDRICAL BRUSH OPERATIVELYROTATABLY MOUNTED TO SAID HOUSING, A PRIME MOVER OPERATIVELY CONNECTEDTO SAID BRUSH, A COMPARTMENT IN SAID HOUSING HAVING A PLURALITY OFOPENINGS FORMED IN ITS BOTTOM WALL AND HAVING A TOP OPENING FORRECEIVING ALL MATTER FROM SAID BRUSH, SAID BRUSH ROTATABLE TO THROWSWEEPINGS THROUGH SAID OPEN SPACE AND DIRECTLY THROUGH SAID TOP OPENING,A PLATE SLIDABLY MOUNTED ON THE BOTTOM OF SAID COMPARTMENT AND HAVING APLURALITY OF HOLES EACH CAPABLE OF REGISTERING WITH ONE OF SAID BOTTOMOPENINGS WHEN IN ONE POSITION OF ITS